iPhone 4S sets new record, sees 4 million unit sales in first weekend

The iPhone 4S may have been an evolutionary upgrade, but sales seem to be quite brisk nonetheless. Apple reported Monday morning that the device sold over four million units during its first weekend on the market in seven countries, breaking all previous iPhone sales records.

Apple started taking preorders for the iPhone 4S on October 7 for the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan. After a single day of preorders, Apple previously said that over 1 million users had reserved the device for an October 14 delivery date, which in itself was a new one-day sales record. The device officially launched last Friday, with the usual long lines at Apple retail locations across the US and elsewhere. All told, the company sold over 4 million iPhone 4S devices over the weekend.

No information was available this morning about sales of the $99 8GB iPhone 4 or the free-with-contract iPhone 3GS, both of which Apple is continuing to offer as lower-priced alternatives to its latest hardware.

Despite the impressive launch sales, it's worth comparing to the first weekend for the iPhone 4 to give some context. That device was only available in five countries at launch, excluding Canada and Australia. Server problems caused hassles for some would-be customers, especially on AT&T. And let's not forget that Apple didn't have a white version of the iPhone 4 available, which by many accounts appears to be far more popular than expected. We should also note that with the longer than usual upgrade cycle, far more users were “upgrade eligible” this time around. Given all the issues, it's somewhat surprising Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 units in just three days.

Still, four million sales is nothing to sneeze at, and Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, was quick to brag about the numbers. “iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” he said in a statement, calling the iPhone 4S “the best iPhone ever.”

According to some surveys, a surprising number of people are paying the early termination fee to upgrade from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4s. The iPhones do hold their value pretty well, so you can recoup some of the extra cost by selling your old one.

How does this work in Europe? Aren't all cell phones supposed to be usable on any network a person chooses as well as having to use a mini-USB for charging?

I "recycled" my iPhone 4 32Gb to my network carrier o2 for £300. They then changed my microSIM to a normal SIM free of charge and I used an old £4 LG feature phone for a week or two before the iPhone 4S launch date.

I bought the iPhone 4S direct from an Apple store, which is the only way to get one without a carrier lock and has been the way since the iPhone 4 launch. I went back to o2, asked them for a microSIM and two hours later I had my phone working.

Pretty quick and easy if you ask me.

If o2 ever annoy me, which is highly unlikely, I can just get a SIM only 30 day rolling or 12 month contract with pretty much any carrier of my choosing: Three, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile etc

Also, the micro usb adaptor isn't included in the box, it's an £8 extra.

1. Perfect quality: our eyes cannot view these unfortunately 2. Eye quality: there may be a few cameras that can achieve this, but I haven't seen any so far.3. crap quality: hmm, hello cameras.

What does the Iphone 4S take? #3. 8MP camera my arse. A lot of people will be disappointed if they try to use their phone as a camera for some shots. Hell, even the "1080p" video recording is ... worse then 1080p.

1. Perfect quality: our eyes cannot view these unfortunately 2. Eye quality: there may be a few cameras that can achieve this, but I haven't seen any so far.3. crap quality: hmm, hello cameras.

What does the Iphone 4S take? #3. 8MP camera my arse. A lot of people will be disappointed if they try to use their phone as a camera for some shots. Hell, even the "1080p" video recording is ... worse then 1080p.

Hmm are those scientific terms? The camera has the best aperture of any camera on a phone and how is the 1080p video worse than 1080p? 1080p is determined by resolution and has nothing to do with image quality. The camera included on your phone has never been stated that it would completely replace DSLRs and the like. From the various reviews I've seen, the image quality was pretty high, considering it was a camera on a phone.

foofoo22 wrote:

YourOldBuddy wrote:

Apple could sell poo on a stick.

Bull. Look at their current flop, Apple TV.

As of this spring the AppleTV was selling 480k a quarter and that was a 70% increase over that time the previous year. It has been a slow growth product, but since the change to the $99 model, it has been doing much better.

This is the first time a new iPhone has been released on simultaneous carriers in the US. Of course they are going to set records

...but, but, but, all the press said it was just a plain-old iPhone4. Nothing new here! No iPhone5!!!one1!1 iPhone4s will never sell! Quick, dump your Apple stock!

And note that over the weekend AAPL jumped to $30 per share over its close price on the day of the 4s announcement.

Here's what I can take away from this: Tech pundits are completely out-of-touch with the core consumers of these devices. Anyone who bases their future action on what they hear from pundits will be doomed to obscurity.

Without taking into account which version of this model sells most (I don't know that info), the average selling price is $299. Multiplying that by 4M, does that mean Apple sold $1.2B worth of phones in 3 days?

EDIT: Oh, I'm wrong, those are averaged using the contract price. The unsubsidized average is actually $749, and the total amount would be $3B. Yowza!

Idk if I'd call it a flop as much as the ATV seems to still be just a hobby for them. It's a crowded marketplace and isn't feature rich enough (no 1080p for example). Plus Blu ray players do pretty much all the same stuff, but you know...Blu Rays as well.

I'd love to see some more love for the ATV though. Maybe the 3rd model will have some Wii U features for iOS devices. It's silly you can't run Apps on it, although the Mirror Play is nice enough for now

There were a TON of people (myself included) waiting and waiting for the new iphone. Not surprised at all

Yes adding this to the factors many of them already mentioned I can think of the following confounding reasons. - first time its a simultaneous launch (VZW, Sprint, ATT)- 16 month cycle means that there are 4 extra months of eligible free upgaders.- maybe more release in foreign markets.

How much of the difference between the iphone4 and 4s (1.7M vs 4M) this makes up I don't know. But it can't possibly be insignificant. That said, I'm in for 2 haha.

Idk if I'd call it a flop as much as the ATV seems to still be just a hobby for them. It's a crowded marketplace and isn't feature rich enough (no 1080p for example). Plus Blu ray players do pretty much all the same stuff, but you know...Blu Rays as well.

I'd love to see some more love for the ATV though. Maybe the 3rd model will have some Wii U features for iOS devices. It's silly you can't run Apps on it, although the Mirror Play is nice enough for now

Idk if I'd call it a flop as much as the ATV seems to still be just a hobby for them. It's a crowded marketplace and isn't feature rich enough (no 1080p for example). Plus Blu ray players do pretty much all the same stuff, but you know...Blu Rays as well.

I'd love to see some more love for the ATV though. Maybe the 3rd model will have some Wii U features for iOS devices. It's silly you can't run Apps on it, although the Mirror Play is nice enough for now

Wii U stuff potentially has been there since airplay mirroring API's were first introduced. Now that iOS5 brings it to all apps without developers needing to specially code for it you can get stuff like this now;

1. Perfect quality: our eyes cannot view these unfortunately :(2. Eye quality: there may be a few cameras that can achieve this, but I haven't seen any so far.3. crap quality: hmm, hello cameras.

What does the Iphone 4S take? #3. 8MP camera my arse. A lot of people will be disappointed if they try to use their phone as a camera for some shots. Hell, even the "1080p" video recording is ... worse then 1080p.

I think people making low projections are assuming that everyone is like them. The reason for the huge sales for a seemingly lackluster upgrade are

1. Three networks2. Some people "need" upgrades regardless of features. It may have been too early for them to get a 4g without paying a cancellation fee.3. Speed, network, and Siri upgrades are compelling, especially for people who hate to type on their phone. Faster camera is a huge plus, too. The cost is also relatively cheap -- $200 over 24 months? Not bad at all.

1. Perfect quality: our eyes cannot view these unfortunately 2. Eye quality: there may be a few cameras that can achieve this, but I haven't seen any so far.3. crap quality: hmm, hello cameras.

What does the Iphone 4S take? #3. 8MP camera my arse. A lot of people will be disappointed if they try to use their phone as a camera for some shots. Hell, even the "1080p" video recording is ... worse then 1080p.

Am I getting this right? #1 is impossible since it requires 1:1 resolution and you've never seen a #2 camera, therefore all cameras are crap cameras which you make no distinction between?

It's nice of you to say that you've never seen a camera better than the iPhone 4S, but I can't help feeling that your scale isn't very useful.

What I see happening here is a successful strategy to produce and market "the Apple U.S. Contract Phone." That's a phone which does not become obsolete if you keep it throughout the two-year carrier contract imposed by the peculiar locked-in U.S. market: you are not forced to renew before your time. This strategy is only possible for companies that control mobile phone hardware, software, app market and, if possible, an associated cloud infrastructure. Meeting these conditions results in the mobile market's only smartphone with planned obsolescence in excess of two years. The iPhone, whatever number you put on it, now and in the future. And the sales figures show the public has, perhaps subconsciously, twigged to this. A benefit of this strategy, for that majority of us who live outside the United States, is that even if we are free of contract lock-ins, the perspective of being able to hold on to a phone for at least two years before feeling pushed to get a new one is great. The Apple strategy seems to go like this:1. Produce a great phone with market-leading features: 3G or 4. 2. Roughly a year later, make significant if not spectacular hardware improvements to stay slightly ahead of the pack, but combine this with significant software improvements that would by themselves almost make this feel like a new phone:3GS, 4S. Plus keep improving the App Store and upgrading the cloud e.g. from MobileMe to iCloud. This kind of strategy demands that the relationship between operating system and hardware be finely optimised, if hardware that performs better than the rest of the pack at the start (note performance, not specs) is to still be acceptable two years hence. You gotta write the software and design the hardware. At the moment, only Apple can do this. Google may be headed that way with Android and Motorola, but is not there yet, and would pretty well have to abandon the other manufacturers that use Android. Microsoft and Nokia may together be able to do this, but much depends on Windows development. Neither will be competing with Apple for this kind of phone in the immediate future. If Apple begins marketing it's phones as a "buy it and keep it while it improves" product, they may for a time have something unique that will continue to produce the sales figures quoted in the article above.